The Deluged Heart of the Idle Cosmopolitan is a Dwelling for Nobody. How Herder Urged Kant to Think through Teleology

The paper establishes on textual grounds how Herder’s Ideen zur Philosophie der Geschichte der Menschheit (Ideen) and the ensuing clash between Herder and Kant in the 1780’ies made up an important spur for Kant to develop his transcendental philosophy of teleology and publish the Critique of Judgement in 1790. As Herder published Ideen I in spring 1784 Kant was not late to respond with both his own alternative conception of a philosophy of history in November 1784, Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlichen Absicht (IaG) and a review of the book in January 1785 (RezHerder I). April 1785 Herder met Kant’s alternative conception with severe criticism in Ideen II again triggering Kant to reply with one more text on the philosophy of history in January 1786, namely the Mutmasslicher Anfang der Menschengeschichte (MAM) and in November 1785 a review of Ideen II (RezHerder II). I argue that Herder’s critique of Kant’s Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbürgerlichen Absicht hit a sore spot and Kant in the ensuing texts struggled with how to give an adequate response to Herder’s critique and the final result was his complex philosophy of purposefulness in Kritik der Urteilskraft, published in 1790.